February 23, 2024
Sparrow BioAcoustics [Sparrow], a pioneer in the field of bioacoustics technology, announces the launch of Stethophone™, a groundbreaking advancement in personalized heart health, exclusively on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2024. This innovative software turns smartphones into medical-grade stethoscopes, allowing people to capture, analyze, and share critical heart health data with medical personnel from the comfort of any location.
Stethophone works by harnessing the built-in microphone of a smartphone to capture the nuanced sounds of the heart. Through sophisticated bioacoustics engineering, these sounds are then filtered to provide clear, medical-grade diagnostic signals – some of them at the outermost edges of human auditory perception. With widespread adoption, it is anticipated that this bioacoustics technology will allow for the detection and diagnosis of routine and difficult cardiac conditions sooner and with more ease.
In an unprecedented move, Stethophone recently won FDA clearance in 2023 for use by medical professionals in the United States, marking it as the first-ever FDA-cleared smartphone stethoscope Software-as-a-Medical-Device (SaMD). Furthermore, the software has achieved another landmark by obtaining FDA clearance, again in 2023, for use by consumers – another first in the industry – empowering individuals to take an active role in their heart health.
In addition to providing the sophisticated bioacoustics technology that powers Stethophone, Sparrow offers medical practitioners advanced visualizations that enable them to understand how to interpret the diagnostics originating from the device. These visualizations aid in the recognition of patterns and anomalies that may not be easily discernible by conventional cardiac diagnostics, thereby potentially enhancing today’s diagnostic accuracy and efficiency.
“We are at the forefront of a revolution in personalized heart health,” said Mark Attila Opauzsky, CEO of Sparrow BioAcoustics. “Stethophone embodies our commitment to provide everyone the power, agency and access to fight heart disease right in their own hands. Launching on Valentine’s Day symbolizes our dedication to heart health and the love and care we invest in our products and the people they serve.” Valentine’s Day also marks the five-year anniversary when Mark almost lost his life to a sudden, rare disease. To him, this launch is very personal.
As Sparrow eagerly celebrates the release of Stethophone, the company is already looking toward the future with the development of the next iteration of Stethophone, which explores integrating artificial intelligence functionalities into the bioacoustics engineering.
Stethophone is available now on iOS. To learn more about Stethophone and Sparrow BioAcoustics, please visit https://stethophone.com/.
See the original press release here